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From Homeless to 8 Figure Entrepreneur with Stephen Scoggins

From homelessness to heartfelt industry leader, Stephen Scoggins is an 8 figure serial entrepreneur of multiple businesses who has dedicated himself to serving the person he used to be.  Stephen is also an author and the host of the syndicated, top-rated, hit podcast Stuck to Unstoppable. He’s been featured in media like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, Evan Carmichael’s Top 10, and many more. 

I met Stephen several years ago through mutual friends and we were working together on a consulting project. My first impression of Stephen was through his credentials, but when he mentioned that he had been homeless before his success, I knew there was so much more beneath the surface to this man that you might know at first glance.

Today, we’re talking about how to cultivate unstoppable energy towards your goals, as well as how to build a self concept in alignment with achieving your biggest, wildest dreams.

 

Show Notes:

[3:50] – Stephen shares a bit about his backstory and how his self image shifted through his journey.

[6:19] – He was promised a dream but walked into his first experience of living in lack.

[8:26] – We get to choose the identity we live in. Stephen describes his decision.

[10:17] – The life of the entrepreneur is a journey of aspiration.

[11:46] – His first aspiration was to become secure.

[13:43] – The entrepreneurs that are bringing in the most income spend more time becoming more conscious of the subconscious.

[15:27] – Stephen describes an experience that completely changed his money mindset.

[17:56] – He has a daily routine that chooses for him what he is going to do to continue his personal growth.

[20:20] – Look at all the things in your life that money cannot buy.

[25:03] – We all move through seasons. 

[27:30] – How many times as thought leaders are we pivoting on content?

[29:24] – After speaking with one of his clients, Stephen had an epiphany.

[30:56] – Once you’ve shifted from tactical thinking to strategical thinking, then you’re into scaling.

[32:07] – Elyse has built her aspirational identity.

[34:16] – “I am ready to be on the same level.”

[36:10] – It doesn’t matter what table you’re at. It’s about being effective.

[37:56] – “I am someone worthy of wealth because I am going to steward it.”

[39:37] – Stephen offers online courses and training that takes you through building a business step by step called Unstoppable Online.

[41:25] – We are uniquely qualified to make something out of nothing.

[42:46] – If you continue to work on your aspirational identity, the next step will always be greater.

 

Connect with Stephen:

Stephen Scoggins Home Page

Unstoppable Podcast

Stephen Scoggins on Instagram

Links and Resources:

Instagram  |  LinkedIn  |  YouTube

She Sells with Elyse Archer Home Page

Abundance Mini Course

Join the $10K Club

Apply for the $50K Club Mastermind

 

0:02

Welcome to She Sells Radio if you are looking to be massively empowered and

0:07

inspired today you’re going to want to listen in on this conversation and I will give a brief disclaimer my voice is

0:13

a little funky the boys have brought something home uh but I was like this conversation is so important and so

0:19

powerful there was no way I wanted to reschedule it so I have got my dear friend Steven Scoggins here on the

0:26

podcast with us I met Stephen a couple years ago through some mutual friends Rory and AJ Vaden and we were working

0:34

together on a consulting project and my first impression of Steven was just through his credentials like that he’s

0:40

an eight figure serial entrepreneur super successful in what he does and then I think it was on like day two of

0:47

us working together he just mentioned at one point that he had been homeless at

0:52

one point and I was like there is so much more than meets the surface to this man than you might know at first glance

0:59

and getting to know him better and work with him on multiple projects now over the years I’ve seen what a phenomenal

1:06

human being what an incredible connector what an incredible thought leader he is and I wanted to bring him here to you on

1:12

the show today to talk about how do we cultivate that Unstoppable energy towards your goals as well as how to

1:20

really build a self-concept and a self-image that’s in alignment with achieving your biggest and Wildest

1:25

Dreams because Steven has done some pretty incredible things and is continuing to do that today so I’m going

1:31

to give you just a bit of his formal bio here and then we’re gonna dive in so from homelessness to heartfelt industry

1:38

leader Steven Scoggins is an eight-figure serial entrepreneur of multiple businesses who has dedicated

1:43

himself to serving the person he used to be Stephen is an author and the host of

1:48

the syndicated top-rated hit podcast stuck to Unstoppable he’s been featured

1:53

in media like Forbes entrepreneur Thrive Global Evan Carmichael’s top 10 and many

1:58

more Stephen welcome to the show I’m so excited to have this time with you today are you kidding me anytime I get a

2:05

chance to hang out with you I’m in well we were just talking in the the pre-chat you’ve got so many exciting things going

2:11

on right now and we were talking about it and I was like Stephen it wouldn’t matter like I don’t need to know details on anything that you’re doing if you’re

2:17

like hey Elyse, I’ve got this thing going on I’m like I’m there like this that is the caliber of who you are and for

2:23

everyone listening I think that’s so important to think about like for your own reputation have you built a

2:29

reputation based on heartfelt service looking out for other

2:35

people where no matter what you put out there the people who know you were like I’m in right I think that’s a huge piece

2:41

of sales too and achieving our sales goals is building that reputation so okay we’re going to we’re going to dive

2:48

in because I know we’re going to take the full time and have a lot to talk about here but Stephen where I would

2:53

love to start with you one of the things that I truly believe in that I teach my

2:58

clients is that our results will never supersede our identity our results will

3:03

never supersede our identity and I think this is going to fun be fun for me because I’m going to get to know more of

3:09

your journey too from what I know about your journey at one point you had an

3:14

identity of someone who was in homelessness and then at another point and other points you’ve had an identity

3:20

of someone who is a Serial eight figure very successful entrepreneur so can you

3:25

tell us a bit about your backstory of that journey and if you can weave in

3:31

some of how your self-image shifted over the course of the journey I want everyone to really listen for this

3:36

because our self-concept and our self-image is everything on this journey towards our goals so take that where you

3:43

will my friend and I’d love to hear a little bit more of them yeah absolutely well it’s funny I was mentioning before

3:49

we hopped on the air it’s like well you know if I tell too many stories we’re gonna be in trouble yeah so I’ll try to keep it light and brief but uh yeah I

3:55

grew up in um unfortunately like a lot of uh American households nowadays which breaks my heart which was a broken

4:00

household um my mother and father were not healed people before they met each other um and that just compounded my father

4:07

struggled with alcohol for a number of years uh my mother I would dare say struggle with some mental illness off

4:12

and on and as a result you had two toxic people trying to have a whole relationship which we know doesn’t work

4:19

um you know now I am happy to say they’re both fantastic grandparents and they’ve both done a tremendous amount of

4:24

healing they’re both awesome human beings I’m so proud of their Journey um but earlier in my life uh the the

4:30

tricky part was I was so so unstable because of that relationship

4:35

that they ended up splitting up and going their separate ways and lo and behold I ended up living with my grandmother my brother and I and

4:42

honestly that was the first time I ever had that I can remember having consistent empowerment encouragement like empathy compassion at the same time

4:51

it was not impossible for my nanny to pop me in the mouth if I’d said something stupid because I grew up in the southern place

4:57

where ass whooping’s all right you know kind of thing so yeah you know so we went through all that and then

5:03

unfortunately she passed away at the age I think it was 11 years old when she passed away and obviously my

5:09

parents came back into the picture really quickly and I don’t know if it was before she passed but as she passed after she passed because it was kind of

5:15

a blur um but my one and only had passed away is essentially what it boiled down to and for some reason I went to go live

5:22

with my father and my little brother went to go live with my mother and to this day I’m not exactly sure what that was I do know that I had a decision in

5:28

it um but I do know and I do know that my father promised me martial arts lessons which I wasn’t big into martial arts and

5:34

wearing ninja masks when I was a kid and all kinds of silly stuff and um it’s funny he promised me this this

5:41

dream and then I walked into [Music] um probably my first really solid

5:47

understanding of um an area of lack some would call it poverty some would call it you know uh

5:53

just having an essence of lack we moved into an old broken home a broken trailer park uh or both in broken trailer up in

6:00

the Fuquay Varina area which is like 40 minutes from where we’re at today immediately literally I think I think I

6:06

moved in on a Friday evening and on Saturday morning I was woken up at 5am to go carry studs and was thrust in the

6:13

construction industry um barely waking up brother in my eyes every morning and then you know working in the hot sun in the cold weather and

6:19

all kinds of stuff if I wasn’t in school I was at work and uh you know early on you know you’re

6:25

as a kid you’re like what am I doing out here like I need to be like watching like you know Nickelodeon or something

6:30

and and uh you know it wasn’t that wasn’t too far along that I actually felt like I had a great sense of uh

6:38

understanding that my life was not going to be the the dream that was forecast to me or the dream that was promised to me

6:44

and then as things went on I also became more and more aware that if I was going to do something with my life I was

6:50

probably gonna have to do it myself um now that awareness came like later I think but um at the end of the day gosh

6:57

that was probably that was our life for a number of years my father got remarried um he had built a construction business

7:03

with a with uh his his former wife’s father and it did really well we went

7:09

from the trailer to a nice really nice home in Raleigh and you know they were we started having really nice Christmases and we started having you

7:15

know my dad would you know bought some new vehicles and you know for my stepmother and himself and you know so

7:21

at that point I felt like okay cool things are going good I’m in I’m in junior high you know I’m I’m in the

7:27

click so to speak you know kind of deal and uh yeah it wasn’t too much longer after that then unfortunately my dad

7:33

lost his business and the reason I mentioned that part of the story is because there’s something really important here when it comes to

7:39

Identity that I think is a big takeaway I think the comment I’m about to share

7:44

with you was the core of the identity that I chose to live and I and I say

7:50

that shows because I think we all can choose which identity we get to live I chose to live for a number of years all

7:56

the way into the point of homelessness which I can get into a little bit but the reality was is my father said

8:03

um this is after losing his business a brokenhearted man going through a tremendous amount of trouble having to

8:08

declare bankruptcy having vehicles repossessed going through pretty much anything that could be

8:15

um you know tied to if you will tied to kind of the scenario of what a what most of us hired

8:23

any two which is stuff things success reward right so um I’ll never forget that she looks at me and he’s got tears in his eyes he’s

8:29

always remember Scoggins don’t get ahead they just get by oh wow and you know even then something

8:37

in my spirit said that’s a lie but I couldn’t pick up on it like early on and the reason I say that is because a lot

8:43

of the folks that I know that we’ve worked with um just you know different entrepreneurs and different stuff they all have in

8:49

many respects the ones that are becoming super successful have chosen to fight through some form of limiting belief and

8:56

whether or not that was a belief they had on the inside of self-worth or was a belief that came on the outside you know

9:02

our good friend Rory mentioned him one of the podcasts he put me on probably two years ago I had this

9:08

epiphany and he said uh he said what do you think you know kind of what do you think has held you back from you’re

9:13

really pursuing your personal brand and all this kind of stuff and in that moment I said well

9:18

I’ve never been asked that question before I’m not really sure you know what I do know what it is Rory am I worthy of

9:24

a voice wow right so it all ties back to an early stage worthiness kind of issue and

9:31

I find that all entrepreneurs struggle with insecurity all entrepreneurs struggle with isolation at times they

9:36

all struggle with pride and arrogance at times they all struggle with um a lack of humility or being overly humble in

9:43

many respects where they’re taking advantage of you know so I find that the life of the entrepreneur is more of a journey of aspiration

9:50

right rather than kind of looking at your circumstance and one of my friends John Gordon he had me on one of his uh

9:56

recent virtual events which was a simple joy and um out of it came out of these words and

10:02

I feel like it kind of resonates because it’s like we talked about the from now where’s the two

10:07

um he asked me so what’s you know kind of what was the major Catalyst what was the kind of the big difference and I

10:13

discovered that your emotional intensity has to be tied to your aspirational identity

10:19

so if you take all of your emotions you take all of your resources everything you think you feel whether or not you’re

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praying you’re meditating you’re reading you’re watching T you’re watching TV programs if all of that energy is focused on the

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old you you will never discover the new you wow yes yes your emotional intensity

10:38

has to be tied to your aspirational identity I get that right yep and it’s

10:43

okay for your aspirations to compound over time right when I made my when my

10:48

when I made in fact when I first started my business I literally started out of the construction trash piles to kind of get it going

10:55

um everybody that knows me close enough knows that I was literally sleeping in a barred friend’s car when I started my first company and

11:01

my first aspirational identity was to get secure get shelter get food right

11:07

then it was like how do I make my first ten thousand dollars then how do I make my first or my next I’m saying it’s a

11:13

compounding effect and your aspirational identity must always be set in front of

11:20

your current role or current level of identity in other words you have to program yourself because the entire

11:26

world’s trying to program you on a regular basis yes how do you keep going

11:31

so we’ll weave in a little more of the story here but I think what you just said is so important about the aspirational identity piece

11:38

how do you keep that front of mind when you’re looking at current surroundings

11:43

and you’re like you’re sleeping in a friend’s car and yet you’ve started your business and you’ve got you know your

11:49

dad told you this thing Stephen there’s Coggins don’t get ahead they just get by and so you probably got some of that

11:54

like playing in the background you’ve got the early programming of instability insecurity that was put into your

12:00

nervous system and into your subconscious mind at an early age how do you

12:06

how do you not let everything be influenced by current circumstances and keep going back to the vision and the

12:13

aspirational identity when you don’t love what’s surrounding you well I think it comes out of three things the first

12:18

of which is an Awakening if you will someone who has an Awakening

12:24

has a position of I’m going to understand

12:31

how my subconscious came into being to begin with so I refer to it as you have to make the conscious like right now we

12:37

all operate off a program and we’ll you know we get up we do the same thing every day we turn the dial like the the

12:42

fact that you use a right hand versus a left hand on a regular basis is all programmed right it’s it’s all some you

12:48

know at some point in time they handed you a pin in their right hand and it was just easier for you so you just stuck with it right whereas somebody else had

12:54

put a pit in the left hand it was easier for them right it’s kind of the same thing so it’s like an element of it the difference between people that I I see

13:01

that are six figure entrepreneurs or or earlier or eight figure nine-figure ten figure is those are eight nine ten

13:07

figure entrepreneurs they spend a lot more time becoming more conscious of their subconscious

13:13

so the things that are going into their mind the things they’re they’re reading the resources all that kind of stuff uh

13:19

the why right so I had to ask myself at one time why why do Scoggins only get by

13:26

and not get ahead why yeah who made up that rule where’d that rule come from yes right for some it might be

13:33

um they might have gone through a divorce and it’s like well I’m I’m a failure as a spouse like they they assign identity to an

13:42

event rather than seeing the event as an escalation path to a new future so I

13:47

think making the conscious more I’m sorry making the subconscious more conscious as a key tactic

13:54

um number two is understanding how programming works right um programming works by repetitive

13:59

action and beliefs over time and for me programming is a choice so again I go

14:05

back to am I choosing to program myself or am I allowing others or my operating

14:11

system to continue the program it’s always known right so I’ll give an example my father

14:18

um gave me that comment and that you know haunted me for a number of years and of course I just watched him continue to struggle for a number of

14:23

years so much so that I had to drop out of high school to help pay the bills and all kinds of stuff so I never graduated high school you know I didn’t know I had

14:30

ADHD and dyslexia at the time that was like you know kind of like unique I just knew I was a creative Problem Solver

14:35

even though I couldn’t get the grades up right my grades would be stuck at a c or B at the kind of the best

14:41

um but I’ll never forget this the my first Mentor in my audience has heard me talk about this a bazillion times probably so much you’re probably tired

14:47

of hearing it um but he pulled me down with my dad’s framing crew one afternoon and he asked me he said what is the difference between a rich man and a poor man

14:54

and of course as somebody who was in kind of more or less impoverished I wouldn’t say I was like we couldn’t eat but we definitely had a hard time paying

15:01

our bills okay in that moment um I was like well of course it’s money it has to be money I mean you have money

15:07

my dad doesn’t have money right so so every time like we wanted something we would go to him and ask her alone

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um you see what I’m saying like that’s a that’s a poverty style thinking yeah um well he actually told me that moments

15:21

was absolutely not it’s the way they think now the next question unprogrammed the

15:26

prior statement from my father all right so watch this remember the prior statements Goggins don’t get ahead

15:32

they get by okay now we’re going to overwrite that program with this Stephen do you want to learn to think like me or

15:39

do you want to continue thinking like your father yeah okay contrast so sometimes it takes

15:46

contrast to understand where the program lies the contrast was my father was

15:52

always borrowing never repaying working his ever-loving butt off I have a very very high level of work ethic and I that

15:58

I know I got for my father okay out of repetitive behaviors right every day at 5am bust your butt till dark do it all

16:05

over again right Steve on the other hand was just as

16:10

diligent with the work but he was 10 times more generous therefore because I believe that because

16:17

of the generosity within his soul the wisdom that came to actually learn to earn and compound over time so Steve for

16:25

example um was someone who I watched literally one time give a thousand dollar tip under a basket of hush puppies to a

16:31

single waitress you know a mother a mother of one right and then him he and his wife walk out the building as if

16:37

nothing ever happened so it’s like normal like you know not even thinking about it and the waitress come out lift the basket of hush puppies thinking she

16:43

got stiffed and then lift about and then see a thousand dollars and get wrecked like on their knees on the front on the

16:48

floor crying because all of a sudden she could pay a bill or something another you know what I’m saying like I watched him do that so many times I

16:55

watched him be a very frugal businessman like if you were gonna try to take advantage of him he would stop you in your tracks yeah you know what I’m

17:02

saying so that gave me the contrast so if we take the programming aspects now

17:07

we’re going to program the Consciousness that we’re now aware of based on a choice to actually want and desire okay

17:14

which takes me to the third thing the third thing that I do specifically as I have a daily routine

17:20

that basically predisposes or chooses for me that I’m going to do this this

17:26

this this and this to continue my personal growth quick example I get up at 5 5 30 every day

17:33

um I meditate and I pray I do both uh I pray asking for God to give me chances to serve I pray asking for him to give

17:39

me wisdom I pray for him to ask me to uh for me to have opportunity to do whatever he’s called me to do that I’m

17:46

I’m awakened to what he’s called me to do that in a moment I can talk to a team member a client or somebody on the

17:52

street and he gives me a word for them I’m gonna I’m gonna turn to give it to him I want to be that receptive I want to have that kind of relationship on the

17:58

meditating side I began doing something um because I because I understand programming is repetition right its

18:05

information meets repetition information repetition information repetition um now granted you take action on the

18:10

information but it’s the same kind of concept uh a mantra that I just recently started doing probably six or eight

18:16

months ago and I was sharing with you um Offline that hey things are really starting to open up in a couple of key categories here’s my Mantra I am healthy

18:23

I am wealthy I am wise and I’m a steward of the most high I am healthy I am

18:29

wealthy I am wise and I’m a steward of the most high now the intent behind the

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Mantra has to be just as powerful as the Mantra itself so when I say I’m healthy I’m healthy my blood’s flowing at all

18:41

levels my energy is like corresponding through my fingertips we could we could do some Star Wars kind of like zapping

18:46

over here kind of thing um when I’m talking about wealthy I’m not talking about just monetary like I’m

18:51

talking about the wholeness of my relationships the wholeness of my opportunity right I know some very very

18:56

very people that I consider very wealthy who don’t do that well financially because they choose not to not because

19:02

they’re incapable they just don’t want to I also know some very wealthy people nine ten-figure earners that are very

19:09

unhappy right so the amount of resource is not connected to the rate of

19:14

Happiness what’s connected to the rate of happiness is the intent behind that what you pour into your life

19:20

wow wow that’s amazing keep if there’s

19:25

anything else keep going but that that one piece I think I want to pause on

19:31

um because people will say like I can only feel wealthy when I have X amount in the bank right and I I was listening

19:37

to something I think it was from Oprah um this weekend but a piece about gratitude and it was like if you want to

19:43

feel really wealthy look at everything in your life that you have that money can’t buy so it’s so I love that you

19:50

talk about that because it’s not just the monetary piece although that does flow when we create the identity of someone who’s wealthy it’s all the other

19:57

elements as well let’s talk about alignment for just a second right yes yeah in order for our soul to align with

20:03

our authentic self you have to become faithful with the little and grateful with the outcome

20:10

Okay so the Bible says and I’m a I’m a Jesus guy I’m an energy guy but I’m also a Jesus

20:16

guy um I can do both and and I see when I look at the two in scripture I see it all over the place

20:21

um but in the Bible specifically it says if you are faithful with the little I will make

20:27

you a master Rover much most people want to be made a master over much without doing the work to be faithful with the

20:33

little so if you can learn to be faithful and grateful with the little then you will be made Master over much you know a lot

20:40

of I was I had the privilege as your friend to watch like you explode in business like you went from here and

20:46

exploded to a certain to another level yeah and you know and I I personally believe this because you stewarded you

20:53

um you took the time to like make sure you were serving with the servant’s heart right I believe great selling

21:00

actually start with great starts with a great servanthood right you don’t sell them the product you want to sell them you sell them the product they need

21:06

right and you do it from that resource or and sometimes you just give them you give them out of service and because of

21:13

that the spirit of reciprocity is built and then they want to buy you know you take all of those different types of things and all comes bound to being

21:20

faithful with the little and you’ll be made Master over much yes yes so for you on that journey to building

21:28

this self-concept and the self-image and and becoming the the level of success that you are today one thing you said

21:36

earlier about your Mentor Steve I think is so powerful okay my voice is going to hold on through this we got you yeah

21:42

yeah I’m calling it in you he asked you that question about do you want to learn how I think or something along those

21:49

lines I think that is so important Stephen I know when I like when I had

21:54

you kind of mentioned just now like my own Quantum Leap experience for the first time I had hired a mentor not to

22:00

give me a tactical strategy but I knew like enough of this stuff to be

22:06

dangerous and enough of this stuff to know that if I could learn how she thought that was what I actually needed

22:12

to learn because I knew that I was getting the same results over and over again because I was thinking these repetitive thoughts so is that has that

22:19

been the biggest shift for you in terms of just learning how to think differently yes yeah the easy answer is

22:25

yes a couple of things um this is why your circle of influence is so powerful because most of thought

22:32

is actually caught so you’re gonna as you’re around with as you’re like when you and I hang out for

22:38

example we talk about big things and Big Dreams and big goals if I was to go talk to

22:44

um someone um who’s still homeless for example we’re not going to have the same conversation and if I spend more time

22:50

with you then I spend more time with the homeless crowd then that’s going to slow my slow my development versus grow my

22:57

development yes okay so when I look at mentors specifically I believe a mentor

23:04

comes in the moment that you need the most right and in a specific like I need

23:09

like I need to improve my financial resource great I want to talk to this mentor on finances I need to prove my emotional intelligence great I need to

23:15

talk to this Mentor emotional intelligence it’s very rare that all the men you can go to One Mentor that can do

23:20

the whole around approach very rare yes okay unless that person has done tremendous amount of work

23:26

um and I call them get kind of like getting to the sage level if that makes any sense they’re kind of a sage like Gandalf or you know big old white beard

23:32

or whatever or a long white ponytail you know um that kind of set up so I say that because when it comes down to

23:40

learning from the mentor learning of the information you need to learn thinking learning to think like an eight-figure entrepreneur there’s going to be certain

23:47

things you’re going to catch and as you catch things you’re going to question things okay so you catch it hey hey

23:54

Steve I saw you do this why did you do it yeah most people won’t ask why did

24:00

you do it how did you do it they’ll ask Kyle actually they won’t ask what or why right because there’s always a there’s

24:07

always an intangible I’m actually working on a resource right now that literally it’s right here in front of me

24:13

um called how uh eight-figure entrepreneurs think or mindsets of an eight-figure entrepreneur or something like that and one of the things I jotted

24:19

down was on just understanding the season of business that you’re in I did a um a private um

24:26

uh Mastermind with Evan Carmichael up at his house in Toronto a few months back and um he had a he has equity in a lot of

24:32

different businesses and he brought all of his business owners to that that meet and greet if you will that Mastermind and I got to see

24:39

um firsthand like what they were all struggling with the number one thing they were struggling with is impatience

24:45

oh wow they all wanted it now I want to be here now I don’t want to wait I don’t want to do that it’s all impatient so by

24:51

understanding for example the five seasons of building a business once you understand the Five Seasons you can

24:57

identify what season you’re in and then also what needs to happen to movie to the next season wow all right so if you

25:04

think about um we all know that right now in North Carolina it’s summer or summer-ish it’s

25:09

hot and muggy today unfortunately yeah right um in a normal in a normal World North

25:16

Carolina used to have four distinct Seasons they’re kind of merged together now but these should be four distinct Seasons but you know that you know at

25:21

the end of summer is going to equal fall and that falls gonna go into winter and winter is going to go into Spring right it’s the season

25:27

so if I know that I need that I’m heading into Winter or I’m heading into fall that means I probably need to buy

25:33

some more jeans maybe maybe a nicer maybe a you know a light coat or whatever maybe some hiking shoes if I

25:38

want to go out and enjoy the hiking whether up by the mountains or something like that I’m probably not going to go to do too many Beach trips because the

25:44

water is going to be cold and you know I’m going to be cold and you know that kind of thing so your business is exactly the same way okay

25:51

all businesses have seasons the only difference is as you scale you’ll repeat

25:57

the seasons but when you’re getting going it’s actually fairly linear okay here’s what I mean

26:03

um the first season of building a business is the startup phase right that’s that’s my heart I love startup entrepreneurs because that’s all hustle

26:09

and grind and like let’s make something happen I’m creating something from nothing and all that kind of stuff

26:14

um that means you’re probably shooting from the hip a lot you’re just trying to you know you’re you’re probably not being super selective with your choices

26:21

or your relationships or the people that are mentoring or the business that you’re building you’re probably just like does this work yes or no okay it

26:27

didn’t work okay I’m doing some do something right there’s a lot of pivoting going on okay um there’s actually a time and a place

26:32

for that that’s that’s an experience Builder okay but let’s let’s say that okay I’ve got I’ve got something moving

26:38

right it’s not optimized make something well the next phase is the season if you was testing now I gotta test what I did

26:45

and can I actually make money at this am I actually serving the the marketplace

26:50

does the does the marketplace even want what I have right how many times has thought later specifically are we

26:56

pivoting on content right does this serve you well no it doesn’t serve you what would serve you I

27:01

mean this whole this whole eight um eight uh thoughts or of a excuse me eight figure mindset like this came out

27:10

of a survey one of my clients said I would say hey guys I’m thinking about creating a new resource it’ll be free

27:15

what it might be video it might be PDF it might be a combination of both what do you think well honestly we want to

27:20

know how you think because you’ve already done something I haven’t done you see what I’m saying yeah well that’s a that’s a that’s me

27:27

testing I’m testing does this work right once I understand super quick I just want to

27:34

pause you on that because some people will say like you know your clients don’t know what they need you need to

27:40

know what your clients need and based off that but you’re more you’re on the path of like no like survey the audience

27:45

ask the audience and that’s what’s really I like hearing differing perspectives on this because I think

27:50

it’s like there’s not really a right or wrong it’s what do you believe in what’s in alignment so I just wanted well I’ll

27:56

tell you what a time I got that wrong so I went out and invested three hundred

28:01

thousand dollars in putting together a major live event with major thought leaders yeah uh in October of 2021

28:07

called transform you now at its heart that’s my heart right I want to ignite

28:12

what’s inside of you so you can become the best of you period okay here’s what I realized did you know that most people

28:18

don’t actually want to buy Life Mastery products or content why

28:23

because they don’t want to admit they got problems in their life okay so I go and spend the money I don’t

28:30

have the resource I don’t have the the critical mass from attendees I end up having an incredible event I got all kinds of footage it was fantastic

28:36

footage my thought leader friends did me right um all that worked out but I didn’t have

28:41

the audience attendance that I really wanted now contrast that to a few years later

28:46

I had this Epiphany after talking to one of my clients and they were like you know what we really need is like a

28:52

startup program I’m like really okay huh hey guys we’re going to launch this

28:58

new platform what if we change the life Mastery content out for the business content I love that idea okay great

29:04

we’re gonna call it well how about Unstoppable startup right because I’m you know Unstoppable is my word yes and as we started kind of

29:11

like going into that I said well rather than me doing like a paid event I tell you what we’ll just do a filming

29:17

so we’ll I’m gonna invite a couple like key thought leader friends like yourself and Anton come out um and we’re gonna just we’re just gonna

29:23

serve the audience We’re not gonna charge anything we’re just gonna serve the audience and record it right we had

29:28

a much larger turnout for that event than we’ve ever had for anything else why because people want to understand

29:34

how to build a business and the good news is as they’re building their business I can help them build

29:39

themselves yes you see it’s it’s a subtle pivot leave it in that changes

29:44

the the necessity for people wanting to be part of it right so I wouldn’t have

29:50

done that it had I not done a testing phase okay so if you understand where you’re

29:55

at your process if everything’s clicking everything’s working and everything’s starting to really come together now it’s time to start looking at the third

30:01

phase which is investing right how are you investing in your processes your system your team do you do you get a do

30:06

you get a a qualified bookkeeper right now do you spend the money on an executive assistant like now you’re

30:13

starting to go from tactical thinking to strategical thinking okay and that’s a whole other time frame that it takes

30:18

time just kind of itemize that stuff out well once you’ve done that then you’re into scaling all scaling is is a

30:24

compounding of what works it’s a compounding a duplication of what works and then at the Final Phase you

30:31

get to choose do I want to operate this business for the rest of my life or do I want to sell it and both are okay

30:36

so seriously just and that’s just one difference between how an eight-figure entrepreneur thinks versus a six-figure

30:42

entrepreneur thinks a six-figure entrepreneur is thinking about what’s in front of them yeah an eight figure an

30:47

eight-figure entrepreneur says what’s good what’s what do I need to do to build the next five to ten years and that same mindset will transition to a

30:54

nine figure mindset I think that’s so helpful we’ve had quite a few seven multi-seven figure a

31:01

couple eight figure entrepreneurs on the show and nine a nine figure a couple times but like learning the difference

31:07

and the mindset and for everyone listening I want you to really get this like it’s learning how to think like I

31:13

love your phrase the aspirational identity that you’re looking to create I mean at the end of the day it’s that and

31:19

then embodying that and that’s something that um I practice every day and I know it’s like for the next aspirational identity

31:25

I don’t completely embody her yet because I’m not there yet but it’s everyday asking but you’ve learned to

31:31

identify her yeah good boy you see what I’m saying yeah you identify your aspirational identity Yeah by watching

31:38

your mentors and the things that you love most about them um so I think your aspirational identity

31:44

is built on the things you want to achieve but more importantly the people that you admire

31:50

most and what you admire most about them and letting go of the things that don’t serve them or don’t serve you

31:56

that’s how you end up well-rounded with the mentors that you have so once you can identify who you want to become now

32:03

you can create a road map to get there wow that’s so powerful I want to ask you this because

32:10

um part of this is like a very selfish question and then I think it will also hopefully serve everyone who’s listening

32:15

so I know you’ll be able to relate to this in a different way I’ve had some

32:20

opportunities open up recently where I’m like the old version of me the smaller version of me is like wait like do they

32:28

know who I am like are they like is this really happening is this like do I deserve this type of thing I know you’ve

32:34

continued to up level your brand and your impact you recently hosted an event a live event for Ed mylett and you’re

32:40

like you’re do like you’re building I think one of the most influential personal Brands out there today thank

32:46

you how do you yeah no I genuinely mean that um does that part of you that felt

32:52

Unworthy of having a voice that you mentioned before it does that part ever come up and if so what do you do when

33:00

that shows so the answer is yes um however it’s more limited than it

33:05

used to be thank God what do I do so I’ll give you the ad my letter then is is something that’s um

33:12

that’s that’s probably a good understanding because I was obviously I was given an opportunity to serve Ed and the team along with 12 other A-list

33:19

thought leaders at the same stage at the same time in our facility um I had two I had two possible postures

33:26

going into that that event um one is do they recognize me do they even see me

33:33

or the second is I’m ready to be on the same level so I chose to go in as I’m ready to be

33:39

on the same level I’ve achieved in some cases even if he had amazing thought leaders on the stage in some cases I’ve

33:45

already achieved more business success than many of them have not taking it away from because they’re amazing human beings and they do wonderful things but

33:51

what I’m saying is is some of it is reminding yourself of the value you’ve already created

33:57

a lot of us like to take on our criticisms and then all float our reward like we’ll we’ll pick ourselves apart

34:03

hey this is going wrong I’m I don’t I don’t do right here I don’t think right here meanwhile you may have already

34:09

built a seven eight nine figure business and you have to understand how rare that is right the average business that we

34:15

did this study during um Unstoppable startup the average business over 80 percent of the businesses will fail in the first

34:20

two years wow right so the fact that you made it past that and created revenue

34:26

and continued on you see what I’m saying is a big deal um businesses that make it to seven

34:32

figures only about five percent of businesses ever make it to seven figures wow you see what I’m saying so it’s

34:38

recognizing kind of where you are in the journey again we get so focused on how we see

34:44

what we perceive in the mirror that we’re not paying any attention to what has already taken place so one of the things that I do

34:50

internally is I’m like I’m already ready to be at this level um that level will show itself and

34:55

refine itself as I go there I’m going to come in with a servant’s heart right so I don’t think anybody in that experience

35:01

and I God God forbid if they do I’ll have to reconcile it but I don’t think anybody around me can come in and say Stephen Stephen’s coming in with an

35:07

ulterior motive um yeah right I haven’t asked I haven’t asked any of your thought leaders for anything yeah right I’m gonna stand on

35:15

my own two feet you know a lot of people in thought leadership we’re like oh I need to see I want to earn a seat at the

35:21

table why why why do you need to sit at that table I’m gonna go build my own table once you

35:26

come over here and hang out with me at least I’m saying yeah because the reality is is when it comes to a life of

35:31

impact and service it doesn’t matter about the table it just matters whether or not you’re effective

35:38

that’s a make drop moment that’s a mic drop moment choosing the posture

35:44

recognizing what you’ve already done taking ownership of what you’ve already done yeah so anything else you want to

35:51

add to that I don’t know if you know if there’s anything else from in that moment is

35:56

again I think it’s it’s that hot pursuited or aspirational identity again Tony said Tony says this he’s like where

36:04

your energy flow or where your energy flows your focus goes or something along those lines but it’s like where you

36:09

focus right yeah if you’re gonna Focus why not focus on the aspirational to you why not you know go to smallwood.com and

36:16

I’m not a people you know whatever influencer firm enough like that but um there’s a there’s this program or

36:23

this place where you can get these little pictures and you can put them on little you know little pads and hang them on your wall like a picture okay

36:29

most people when they do a vision board they’re doing they’re writing stuff on a vision board they’re you know taking magazine clippings and whatnot why not

36:35

go ahead and do it really nice I want to make it a centerpiece in your house right so

36:41

um one of my next purchases um it won’t be this year well it won’t be this year you know it will be later

36:47

um as I will probably own a private plane and I’m going to want and I don’t want a private plane to say I’m in a private plane in fact I probably won’t

36:54

post about social whatever I want a private plan because you have immense tax benefits right so again eight figure nine-figure

37:02

thinks how can I keep more of what I earn rather than how can I earn more

37:07

um he said like just there’s subtle nuances um but the aspirational identity that’s

37:13

tied to it is I’m someone worthy of wealth because I’m going to Steward it one of the commitments I have to myself

37:20

is if I can afford to buy a plane I can afford to give an equal measure of what the plane affords to over here to a

37:25

couple different entities that’s my goal I want to be that reverse tither I want I want to give weigh 90 level 10 which

37:31

means if I’m gonna have a very nice lifestyle at that level living off of 10 I have to do very well and requires a

37:37

great deal of wealth yeah yeah it’s just so powerful I know you’ve got just a couple minutes I want to ask

37:44

I want to I want to ask first you’ve got an incredible online program and I think what’s really really cool listening to

37:51

you speak here is someone who’s listening and I’ve gotten so much from this today too you get there’s so much

37:56

to learning to think the way that Stephen thinks and he’s like he walks us

38:02

talking you know you’ve put yourself in the rooms with people to learn from to shift the mindset to come from that lack

38:08

and scarcity mindset into a really abundant generous service-minded mindset

38:13

but we can be there and we can have an unsuccessful business or we can be there and we can build and scale very

38:19

impactful businesses that live out our purpose and change the world and so you’ve got both which I think is so

38:27

powerful and I also love that you love helping people in the startup Journey

38:32

that’s like not as much my jam I don’t love the mechanics of the startup I love teaching people more of the you know the

38:38

sales piece yeah well that’s why that’s why you’re in there that’s why we that’s why I brought you in to teach everybody how to sell I appreciate that I

38:45

appreciate that so tell everyone Stephen if they’re listening how can they learn more about your online program how can

38:51

they get involved because I think it’s a phenomenal opportunity yeah absolutely so to make it super easy we’ll obviously have your team have a private link just

38:57

for your folks but uh in short it’s called Unstoppable online uh Unstoppable hyphen online and we’re gonna let you

39:04

into that school there’s already 48 Hours of video training along with an 80

39:11

page workbook that takes you start step by step on building a business um it is something that took me almost

39:16

six months to create just for my content perspective because I had to think about what didn’t work but as much as I thought about what worked but to make it

39:23

even better we’ve done a couple different things we’re going to have specific cohorts inside the platform that we’re going to have like you know

39:29

quarterly quarterly calls everybody together monthly calls everybody together and then I’m gonna bring in

39:35

amazing thought leaders once a once a month some of them are very very notable some of them should be very notable and

39:41

just have it you don’t know them yet and I’m bringing all of that together or to build a community of what I’m calling

39:48

empowering entrepreneurs an empowering entrepreneur is trying to build something outside of themselves they just see their entrepreneurship Venture

39:55

as the bus to kind of like Steward it basically like I want to build social

40:01

um social empowered if you will entrepreneurs because there was this will May blow your mind a little bit

40:07

there was a study done in three years ago that talked about the world’s problems everything from homelessness to

40:13

trafficking to all kinds of things right uh what will blow your mind is so many people are praying to God all the time

40:19

hey God please help us fix this issue please help us do this please help us do that what will blow your mind is inside

40:26

the professing Christian body of church if you look at it from a financial perspective alone there’s enough wealth

40:31

to solve all of it then some which mean God has already answered the prayer but it’s the entrepreneurs that haven’t

40:37

stepped up to the plate and I want to be one of the ones that encourages the entrepreneurs to step up to the plate and do good in the world because we are

40:43

uniquely qualified to build something out of nothing yeah let’s create a moment oh my gosh

40:50

that’s incredible that’s incredible we will we’ll link the program in the show notes I think everyone should go check

40:55

that out and get involved and then final question and oh my gosh my voice says it’s made it kind of been in the home

41:03

stretch here but I would love Stephen if you could share speaking to yourself when you were

41:10

living in the car from now right you are now very much you probably couldn’t even

41:15

think of where you are now from that place you weren’t yet not even cool to conceptualize this right so it’s like

41:21

the journey is pretty incredible but you now speaking back to Steven at

41:26

that moment what did he need to know or hear to start to make that shift so I think

41:33

what he needed to hear is what was what I heard um about 10 minutes before almost took my

41:38

life out of a uh High School girlfriend’s mother that kind of was like my surrogate mom going up through high

41:43

school when I was going through all the dropping out of high school and all this kind of stuff and uh um she made me scream at the top of my

41:49

lungs um this too shall pass and what comes next will be greater

41:56

so whatever you’re facing right now bad go to whatever it’s gonna pass and

42:01

the next thing is greater than the first thing it always is greater than the the next

42:06

thing is always going to be greater and greater and greater if you focus on your aspirational identity oh my gosh I want

42:14

to go back and listen to this again and again I got so much out of this oh thank you my pleasure truly thank you

42:21

um for my listeners gosh go connect with Stephen follow him online listen to his podcast we’ll link that in the show

42:27

Notes too um get involved in the program online I mean again it’s uh it’s one thing to to

42:34

have a mindset of abundance generosity it’s another thing to know how to build and scale in a successful business it is

42:40

a rare thing I think to have one place where you can get with somebody who embodies all of that and can teach you

42:45

both the mechanics as well as the the inner work and has made that shift himself so

42:51

um Stephen thank you so much this has been such a pleasure any time anytime I can handle my sister I’m down for it I

42:56

love it I love it all right to you my listener so grateful for you thank you for listening to this interview I’m

43:03

gonna go drink some hot tea and rest my voice but I was like I’ve gotta have this conversation because I know it’s going to be so so powerful

43:10

um thank you as always for being a listener to She Sells Radio and I’ll see you on our next episode bye for now